TRENTON — The tension between Mayor Tony Mack and the city council ratcheted up Thursday hours before Mack attended council’s closed-door executive session to address questions related to personnel decisions made by the administration as well as layoffs and scandals that have led to negative publicity for the city in recent months.

At the heart of the matter, according to several members of council, is the administration’s lack of communication with both the council and the public.

Mack has rarely attended city council meetings since the beginning of the year. City council has the power to force him to attend, as it did this week.

Mack, whose lack of attendance at council’s last meeting scuttled action on dozens of items, was not in the audience for the first half of Thursday’s meeting, but he came in to address the crowd at the end of a nearly three-hour public comment period.

“We have some challenges as it relates to moving resolutions forward and filling cabinet positions,” Mack said. “I look forward to dialoguing on how to do that in a constructive and productive fashion. I know these are very, very challenging times, and challenging times call for compromise and sacrifice.”

Members of council said that during the closed session they expected Mack to talk about the fate of the city’s public library system, which has had all of its branches shuttered for the last year after a funding dispute; accounting figures for the city’s Heritage Days festival, which a city lawyer admitted in court last week couldn’t be located after they were requested through an Open Public Records Act request; how the city’s layoff plan was put together; and questions about the city’s forthcoming 2011-2012 budget.

The mayor was also expected to be dressed down over more controversial issues, including a scandal over allegedly doctored time sheets submitted by city park rangers — some claiming they had worked 80-hour weeks. The time sheets were written by hand, instead of the workers using a punch clock.

Council members also expected to ask the mayor about an incident involving city workers who accosted volunteers who were collecting signatures as part of an effort to recall the mayor.

“Why are salaried employees being paid overtime? Why were employees able to change time sheets without comment from you? Why have employees of the city of Trenton been able to threaten and harass citizens without any statement from you?” West Ward Councilman Zachary Chester asked rhetorically during a news conference before yesterday’s council meeting.

The news conference, also attended by council members Phyllis Holly-Ward, Marge Caldwell-Wilson and George Muschal, was held in response to a sternly worded statement issued by the mayor’s office Wednesday afternoon demanding a vote on a number of critical resolutions tabled at council’s last meeting.

“As mayor of Trenton,” Mack said in that statement, “I represent the executive branch of government. The City Council is the legislative branch. At all levels of government there is a separation of powers, and that is why I do not consistently attend council meetings.
“Unfortunately, while I have attempted to move the city forward, some members of council actually stated they do not mind bringing the city’s operation to a screeching halt.”

Members of council had informally request Mack’s attendance at its last meeting Aug. 18, but the mayor claimed he never got the invitation and failed to show up.

In response, council yanked more than 60 items off its docket, refusing to take action on any of them. Holly-Ward walked out of the meeting entirely.

Many of the items were back on the docket Thursday night, but had not been voted on as of press time.

In his statement Wednesday, Mack demanded that council approve grant applications for body armor and new computers for the police department and that they approve his nominees for judgeships in the city’s municipal court.

At its last meeting, council rejected four appointees, including two prospective judges and directors of the police and public works departments. That was after business administrator Eric Berry met privately with several legislators and sent a document to Kathy McBride, the council president, indicating with whom he had met and how the legislators were likely to vote.

“I demand Council approve the two municipal court judges I recommended,” Mack wrote Wednesday. “Failure of Council to approve these judges will hurt the city’s budget by limiting the court’s ability to collect fines and will impact public safety by limiting the court’s ability to prosecute criminals. If the council fails to approve these appointments, then I will take all legal action necessary to have these vacancies filled, if only on an interim basis.”

Chester said that, until council’s questions were answered, Mack was in no position to make demands.

“I will not be bossed or bullied into making irresponsible decisions,” he said. “Mayor Mack feels that he is entitled to make demands in order to fulfill his personal agenda and to give the illusion that he has more power than he actually does.”

Mack’s conciliatory remarks before last night’s executive session were markedly different than the back-and-forth between his administration and the legislature before the meeting.

As council began its meeting, Mack’s office sent out a brief, unsigned response: “We understand there are questions regarding Mayor Mack’s statements that demanded council do the job that the public elected them to do. The Council is focused on the word demand,” it read. “Did council members Phyllis Holly-Ward, Marge Caldwell-Wilson, Zachary Chester and George Muschal forget they first demanded that the Mayor attend their council meeting? Hypocrisy has no place in government.”